genome-guided introspection

What is the sound of Aum?

Have you ever wondered what is the proper musical note to sound when singing AUM at the beginning of class?

Tonight, I was blessed to chant along with Girish who led a kirtan at my yoga shala. According to him, “AUM” is traditionally played using a low E-chord. He played his low E chord on his harmonium and we chanted aum – again and again and again! He also said (just paraphrasing his informal comments tonight), that this E-chord is not just a random choice, but that its also the sound that comes from within our minds when we meditate. Hmm, I wondered – cool thought indeed – but is he just making this up?I mean, what could he know (or ancient yogis for that matter) about what is really, actually happening in the mind?

It turns out that modern science can actually “listen” to the brain when it is meditating – by placing listening devices (small electrodes on the scalp) and measuring oscillations of neuro-electrical activity (electroencephalography or EEG). Experienced meditators show an increase in the strength of one particular “note” or frequency – a so-called gamma wave, or gamma frequency of about 40Hz when they reach deep meditative states. According to wikipedia:

A gamma wave is a pattern of brain waves in humans with a frequency between 25 to 100 Hz, though 40 Hz is prototypical. … Experiments on Tibetan Buddhist monks have shown a correlation between transcendental mental states and gamma waves. A suggested explanation is based on the fact that the gamma is intrinsically localized. Neuroscientist Sean O’Nuallain suggests that this very existence of synchronized gamma indicates that something akin to a singularity – or, to be more prosaic, a conscious experience – is occurring.

OK, so modern science measures brain activity in deep meditators and finds that 40Hz is the vibration associated with deep meditative states. Girish says AUM is also the vibration of deep meditative states and is traditionally a low E-chord. OK, so then, is he right? What’s the frequency of low E? Is it 40Hz?

3 Responses

Sorry – I don’t know the frequency of low E – but my meditation teacher talked about these same ideas – each note of the scale having a deeper meaning and effect. I wish I could remember all the teachings!

It does feel like science will slowly prove much of what the yogis proved through their own experiences.

Hi John,
I was vaguely curious about what former members of the S. Lab are doing these days and, of course, googled to find out, and ran into your web site. Very cool! As you can see I’m working my way back through your old posts when I get a moment.

Just a thought on this one — it would be quite interesting to see if shifting the tone changes the meditative experience. You could even do this quantitatively, I’d think. Would be an interesting experiment. Alternatively if gamma patterns differ by person in their frequency, I wonder if different tones might “resonate” better with different people based on their frequency relative to that person’s gamma frequency (if these are indeed typical of a person rather than varying by occurrence or indeed within occurrence)

Anyway, really neat to run across your site, and I’m greatly enjoying it. Feel free to drop me an email if you feel like it. I’m living down in Philly these days.

Maybe even more interesting: at the time when the harmonium made it to India and became popular there, that low E was about as close to 40Hz as it has been at any point in history. Today, it would be slightly more accurate to use E flat. Reader gets to fill in any jokes about our getting progressively more out of tune with our bodies. 🙂

This is because pitch-to-frequency relationships are actually totally arbitrary and have changed a lot over the centuries (specifically, named pitches have steadily risen in frequency). A=440 — the modern western standard that results in E being 41.2 — is really a 20th-century thing (and it’s not universal in India, although based on a quick google, it looks like harmoniums are now mostly sold at A=440).

(The possible 25-100Hz range you mention is a HUGE range in terms of pitch space — a little over two octaves, at A=440 — so, yeah, unless the meditative state really measures right around 40Hz for most people, any individuals who care would need to determine their own meditative-frequency so they can look up the pitch closest to it. And to the extent that a close match matters, people practicing at home then might experiment with a specific-frequency source, such as a good electronic tuner connected to speakers or some purpose-made audio/music, rather than a pitched instrument like a harmonium.)